Number 34 (Story #3), May 15, 1991 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein THE SPACE INFRARED TELESCOPE FACILITY was given the highest priority by the National Academy of Science's astrophysics. There are several reasons for this. First, technological innovations in the 1980's---much better solid-state IR detection chips and longer-duration liquid-helium coolant systems---have greatly enhanced the sensitivity and sharpness of IR images. Furthermore, there are several physics reasons for the increased interest in the infrared: (1) many stars, all planets, and interstellar clouds shine primarily in the IR; (2) the birth of stars inside molecular clouds and the view of our galactic center are obscured at optical wavelengths but not in the IR; (3) characteristic IR spectra allow the study of a wide range of atoms and molecules; (4) the radiation from many important physical processes in the early universe have been redshifted by the Hubble expansion into the IR. (Physics Today, April 1991.)